Household smoking restrictions and adolescent smoking

(Disponible en anglais seulement.)

Among adolescents, home smoking restrictions have been associated with decreased smoking. Accordingly, the current study tested the relation of adolescent smoking to home smoking policy, controlling for parental smoking, peer smoking and tobacco marketing. Researchers used the 1999 data from the Growing Up Today Study, a longitudinal cohort of adolescents.

http://www.healthpromotionjournal.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=AHJP&Product_Code=JV22I115&Category_Code=JV22I115

Comment: This article demonstrates how much of an influence parents have on their kids. Actions do speak louder than words.

Report of the Advisory Board on Tobacco Investment, University of Toronto, February 2, 2007

(Disponible en anglais seulement.)

Introduction - Background - Basis of E-BUTT petition and students for tobacco responsibility - Legal advice on prohibition on tobacco investment - Responses to petition - Recommendations - Appendices.

http://www.businessaffairs.utoronto.ca/AssetFactory.aspx?did=45

Comment: After more than a year of petitioning and deliberation, the University of Toronto decided to divest from the tobacco industry. A great victory for E-BUTT (Education-Bringing Youth Tobacco Truths), a student group at U of T!

Hollywood Quits - behind the scenes of a Hollywood-based smoking cessation program

(Disponible en anglais seulement.)

This study describes the development, implementation and efficacy of Hollywood Quits, a comprehensive cessation program using behavioural counseling and combination tobacco dependency treatment medications. Program was successful with entertainment workers - half of those who took part in the program quit and stayed quit.

http://www.atypon-link.com/PNG/doi/abs/10.5555/ajhb.2007.31.6.705

Comment: Read about this groundbreaking cessation program for members of the entertainment industry!

History of childhood candy cigarette use is associated with tobacco smoking by adults

(Disponible en anglais seulement.)

Jonathan Klein of the University of Rochester and colleagues surveyed 25,887 U.S. adults from the Harris Poll Online (HPOL) and found that 12 percent of current and former smokers had never used candy cigarettes, compared to 22 percent of adults who never smoked. Findings suggest that playing with candy cigarettes may favorably set the minds of children towards becoming future cigarette smokers.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2007.04.006

Comment: It's disheartening to discover that something so seemingly innocent as candy can have such ramifications in later years.

Reducing the addictiveness of cigarettes

(Disponible en anglais seulement.)

Report issued by the Council on Scientific Affairs on how to get rid of nicotine from cigarettes in order to reduce addiction to smoking. Some of the recommendations the council made include: encouraging the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to have control over tobacco products, identify tobacco products as a drug delivery mechanism and nicotine as a drug.

http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/7/3/281

Comment: This article was written in 1998. It's amazing to me that these ideas are still so current.

Clearing the smoke : assessing the science base for tobacco harm reduction

(Disponible en anglais seulement.)

Reports on the ability of harm reduction products to decrease exposure from tobacco, the impact on public health, possible health benefits, and whether there are surrogate markers of effect for a suitable period of evaluation. Also recommends methods for product regulation, tracking their public health effects, and increasing access and education for scientific literature.

http://www.iom.edu/CMS/3793/5424.aspx

Comment: With the introduction of a snus-like product in Canada later this month, this issue is bound to heat up again.

Exposure to smoking depictions in movies : its association with established adolescent smoking

(Disponible en anglais seulement.)

This study confirmed that exposure to movie smoking in adolescents, was a risk factor not just for trying smoking, but also for onset of most advanced stages of smoking.

http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/161/9/849

Comment: Time is NOW for Hollywood to critically address issues of youth exposure to smoking in movies.

Consumption patterns of food, tobacco and beverages : a cross-country analysis

(Disponible en anglais seulement.)

Cross-country study of consumption patterns of food, tobacco, soft drinks, and alcohol in 43 developed and developing countries. Consumers in developing countries spend a much higher proportion of their income on food than consumers in developed countries. Expenditures allocated to the other three commodities - tobacco, alcohol, and soft drinks - were similar in the two groups of countries.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00036840500392664

Comment: I find it interesting that tobacco is categorized as either a "necessity" or a "luxury" depending on the country studied.

Trade agreements and tobacco control : how WTO agreements may stand in the way of reducing tobacco use

(Disponible en anglais seulement.)

The globalization of tobacco - The WTO agreements - Implications for key tobacco control policies - Ending tobacco advertising and marketing - Health warnings and packaging requirements - Standards for tobacco products and exposure to them - Raising prices through taxation of tobacco products - Banning imports of foreign tobacco products - State monopolies - Economic alternatives - Conclusions - References.

http://policyalternatives.ca/documents/National_Office_Pubs/brief2_7.pdf

Comment: Many of the people I know who protest against globalization and the WTO are also smokers. I wish more of them thought about it as a political as well as a health issue.